String of Pearls: The global game of ‘Risk‘ sees China gaining a strategic deep-water foothold for naval deployment into the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, plus a more expedient energy route in tow. It serves too, as an alternative to the Straits of Malacca, where >80% the China’s imported oil has to go through.

A Chinese company Monday took over the operation of the strategic Gwadar Port in Southwest Pakistan and at the door of the Strait of Hormuz, which has been seen as a move that could secure an energy route for China.

At a ceremony held in Islamabad on Monday afternoon, representatives from Chinese Overseas Port Holdings Ltd, Gwadar Port Authority and the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) signed an agreement on the transfer of the port’s administrative control. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari attended the ceremony, saying the agreement marked the start of a new chapter in the lives of the people of Baluchistan and the Pakistan-China friendship, Pakistan’s The Express Tribune reported.

Under the agreement, the Chinese company will fully assume responsibility for the port. It will remain the property of Pakistan and the Chinese company will share the profits.

Dan Drezner has a blog post up arguing that China‘s ‘string of pearls’ is a figment of journalists’ imaginations. The ‘string of pearls’ is the name given to China’s strategic investments in South and Southeast Asia, which, when plotted on a map, look awfully like a string of pearls encircling India. Pakistan is critical to this strategy, both because of its size and its location. Drezner is right to suggest that without the Sino-Pakistani link, the string of pearls theory doesn’t hold.

Pakistan declares China its best friend as China was quick,and the first to show its support of Pakistan after the killing of Osama bin Laden by US Navy SEAL Team 6 in Operation Neptune’s Spear. ‘Both countries also see each other as an important counter-balance to India. To Pakistan, Beijing represents an uncritical friend, ready to provide aid, investment and military assistance.’

With a 35-million-dollar Pakistan-China Friendship Centre in place to offer ‘the Pakistani capital a conference venue, theatre, cinema and space’ on top of the $35 billion worth of deals, Pakistan’s regard of China as its closest ally seems to be firmly in place.

Business leaders formalised paperwork — adding to the 20 billion US dollars’ worth of deals signed Friday — under blanket security at Islamabad’s five-star Marriott Hotel, where a huge suicide truck bomb killed 60 people in 2008.

Boosting trade and investment with poverty-stricken Pakistan have been the main focus of the first visit in five years by a Chinese premier to the country that is on the front line of the US-led war on Al-Qaeda. Read the rest of this entry »